File photo dated 8/5/2008 of Boyzone (left to right) Keith Duffy, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Shane Lynchy and Mikey Graham arrive at The Cauldwell Ball at the Battersea Evolution in Battersea Park, London. Gately has died at the age of just 33. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Saturday October 11 2009. The Irish pop star and actor was on holiday with his long-term partner in Majorca when he 'tragically died' yesterday, according to the band's tour website. See PA story DEATH Gately. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire

Boyzone

Boyzone's Stephen Gately

Boyzone's Stephen Gately

Boyzone's Stephen Gately

The crowd goes wild for Boyzone as they perform in the Odyssey Arena, Belfast.

No official cause of death has yet been confirmed. I don't want to go into that too much, but what I can say is that it definitely was not suicide.

It's a terrible, terrible tragedy. An autopsy report is expected to be carried out in the next few days and then we'll be able to give a definitive answer.

Obviously as his solicitor, I can't divulge too much personal information about Stephen's situation but he was mainly based in London recently.

He was a great family man and visited his parents and the rest of his family in Dublin regularly.

He first applied for the Boyzone auditions in 1994 and I've been a friend of his since then. He's one of the most popular men I've ever met in my life.

I asked him on many occasions how he did it. His music accomplishments were unprecedented. He enjoyed huge success with Boyzone and when he took to the West End during their break he was equally popular there.

Not many bands, including the Beatles, could boast that their first 10 singles went straight into the top 30 charts.

He had praise from some of the best singers and musicians in the world, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elton John, and I know the tributes will be flowing in for him.

I've tons of memories of him. I have so many that I couldn't pick out one specific example. Every time I asked him to help at a charity event or to lend his name to something he was more than happy to oblige.

He was just a soft mannered, gifted singer. My opinion wouldn't carry the weight of some of the people who have paid tribute to him in the past. I don't know anyone who has a bad word to say about him.

I remember one time we were asked to do a charity benefit together and even though he had just come back from a tour and was extremely jet-lagged and exhausted, he dropped everything and came straight over.

I know there will be a lot of people in the music industry and every other area of life who are devastated.

I've met his husband Andrew Cowles.

I'm still in complete shock myself, right now I'm just keeping myself busy on the phone and trying to work things out and dealing with the undertakers in trying to arrange for his body to be flown home as quickly as possible.

At this point it's looking like it's certainly going to be a couple of days before the family can even think about planning a funeral.

He was a wonderful young man and they are all devastated naturally, as are his bandmates.

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